HONOLULU, October 31, 2005 -- Significant misconceptions about the causes of their condition and mistaken beliefs about its potential progression into other diseases, including cancer, marks the knowledge of a sample of patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) in two recent studies by researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. Presented at the 70th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology, these studies echo findings presented at ACG by Dr. Albena Halpert of Boston Medical Center and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on patient perceptions of IBS and their preferences about patient education.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Study Finds Significant Concerns and Misconceptions

"IBS is one of the most common medical conditions, and our study reveals that a lot of people are facing a problem, they don't feel well, they have significant concerns, and they don't have enough information," said Brian E. Lacy, Ph.D., M.D., one of the investigators at Dartmouth-Hitchcock who conducted two separate analyses of 261 respondents to study questionnaires.

In one analysis, Dr. Lacy and his colleagues found that almost half (42.9 percent) of respondents believed that IBS develops due to food allergy or intolerance, while an even larger percentage (82 percent) reported that a change in their daily routine causes IBS. Significant misconceptions were identified regarding the natural history of IBS, with one-third of respondents believing that once IBS develops it will never resolve, and 16.7 percent expressing the belief that IBS will turn into cancer. Of these patients, 87 percent reported that IBS significantly affects their lives, with daily activities (40.1 percent), work life (19.3 percent) and social life (11.2 percent) being the most frequently affected.

In a related study of the same survey respondents, Dr. Lacy and his colleagues found that this sample of patients
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